Tiny Fragments
by Trins xxx
Summary: Even though the team has been decided, Coach Don McIntyre still has a feeling of impending storm. He looks across at the chosen girls, the five that could make history if they were part of one incredible team but right now, all he sees are the fragments of the team they could be. 'Don't suppose you have a cure for being a teenage girl' he asks, only partially joking. [Season 3 ]


**Disclaimer****:** I don't own MIOBI...I'm sure it would be a completely different show if I did.

**Author's Note****: **So this is a partially canon fic, with a bit of a rewrite of the series finale and kicking off with what needs to be done to make a successful team. It's a lot longer than my intentions but I need it all there, to set up future character interactions and storylines. Anyway, hope you guys like it.

**Read and review****: **Each review makes me a better writer so drop a line and tell me how I can improve it.

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Tiny fragments

_Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed._

Khalil Gibrain

Coach McIntyre took a deep breath in, squaring his shoulders with the ominous feeling of a brewing storm. He glanced at the retreating back of the last girl before he made his way towards the stairs. The girls had been dismissed and it was now time for potentially one of the biggest decisions he had to make, definitely as far as women's gymnastics were concerned, and despite his outward facade of confidence, he had misgivings.

He took the steps two at a time, trying to outrun his concerns with dubious result. Nodding politely to Marcus and Regina, he sat down with the list of ten names ready to be discussed, waiting for the assistant coaches to arrive.

'Shall we start?'

Dondré McIntyre found his eyebrows moving upwards but he gave no other outward sign of his opinion at Regina's presumptuousness to start the meeting, not to mention her brusque manner. It was Marcus that replied.

'Aren't we waiting for the assistant coaches? Their opinions are normally very helpful.' His eyes briefly met Marcus', forging a bond, a thread of kinship between them this time. Regina's aims focussed solely on medals, _gold_ medals, with little interest in the human factor. Marcus, on the other hand, had gotten to know the girls very well, keeping a watchful eye on not only their gymnastics but also themselves, as people, as girls who were barely the age of young adults. And for Marcus, it wasn't just about the medals or the individual gymnastics skills; it was also about ensuring the girls reached their potentials and formed a team to inspire young girls and future generations.

'Hi, sorry we're late,' apologised Julia, a pretty, tall blonde who was on the other side of thirty but looked much younger. She never reached international status but had maintained a relatively low-key national career well into her twenties.

Christine slipped in behind her, muttering her own apologies before taking a seat at the round table, opposite to the whiteboard at the head.

'Mind telling us what delayed you?' Regina's tone was just polite enough to get away with it, but regardless, Marcus could see Christine's eyebrows shoot up and Dondré's own lips thinned.

'Just reassuring some of the girls and double checking that we didn't miss any injuries,' Julia's replies were smooth. Don could take a stab at which girl or girls they might have had to reassure but he kept quiet. It would be discussed ad nauseum during the meeting anyway.

'Which girls-' started Regina, only to be cut off by Marcus.

'We can discuss it during the meeting. Why don't we just start it?' It wasn't a question; his tone held too much authority and fortunately for Don's sanity, Regina finally lapsed into silence, not without a pout.

'Let's start with Kaylie. I would rank her as number one.' Regina took the lead.

'There's just the question of banned substances found in her urine test,' Dondré leaned back in his chair.

'Which should be out of her system by the time she's in London,' Regina argued back. 'Look, I know there's a zero tolerance policy, but she's a candidate for Team and All-Around gold, not to mention she could easily get a gold on Floor and medal in Beam, vault and maybe even bars.'

'On a good day,' Christine interrupted, causing all eyes to turn on her. She continued, unfazed, 'Her consistency is improving but psychologically, she just isn't as strong as the others. Her boyfriend breaks up with her and she nearly breaks her back on vault during practice. We find banned substances in her urine and her parents and friends fight more for her to remain on the team than she does. She just doesn't seem to have the same passion or drive or...tenacity, as many of the other girls.'

'And her routines have remained the same throughout the competition. She hasn't changed her floor routine, despite advice to the contrary; her bars have been static, and her performance has been variable. When she hits it, she hits it with a bang but when she doesn't,' Don leaned back in his chair, thinking carefully before finishing his sentence. 'When she doesn't hit her routine or has a fall, she doesn't recover.'

'She still has the highest DOD of all of the girls on almost every apparatus,' Regina retorted.

'Not on balance beam – Lauren's got her beat on Beam and Jordan's got her beat on bars and vault. Payson has a lower DOD but her execution is higher and she scores higher than Kaylie at least half of time. And Wendy's nearly as good as her in terms of All Around chances,' Julia added quietly.

'What about Wendy Capshaw?' Marcus questioned.

'She should be in,' Regina said decisively, her eyes already moving onto somebody else's photo.

'Her teamwork doesn't appear to be strong,' Don said, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. 'She doesn't appear close to any of the girls and doesn't tend to give constructive advice. If anything, she seems to sometimes undermine them.'

'It's rather a character flaw, isn't it?' Marcus leaned forward. 'Is she likely to destroy team dynamics if we add her on the team?'

'The other girls should be strong enough mentally to handle her, and she could be an effective weapon against the Chinese and Russians,' Regina interposed.

'They should be able to count on their team members for support, not for sabotage,' Christine snapped back.

'Her DOD and medalling chances are high enough to warrant a place on the team, regardless of anything else.' Regina was starting to give him a headache and they were only discussing the second girl, Don mused, rubbing his forehead with frustration.

'Fine, let's keep her as a possibility.' He pushed on as Regina opened her mouth to argue. 'Lauren Tanner.'

'Out,' Regina's response came with a derisive snort. Don was pretty sure that his left eyebrow was now twitching uncontrollably. Maybe it was because Lauren had somehow become one of his favourites but regardless...

'She's got a gold-worthy beam, a reliable vault, bars and floor routines that keep improving; it's foolish to kick her out of the possibilities.' Julia's voice sounded surprising fiery, almost passionate, as she spoke and Don wondered what had happened there, whether they had bonded somehow, over something, but he focussed him mind back on to track.

'She _had_ all those things. She only showed us her beam and it was a watered down version.'

'She's just had surgery, Regina,' Marcus began but she cut him off.

'Exactly,' Regina replied. 'She's just had surgery, we're not sure if she's fully recovered yet and she's behind on the training compared to the other girls. It might be foolish to keep her off the team – I'm willing to have her as an alternative – but it's also foolish to give her a spot on the team. We have no way of knowing if she'll be competition ready for the Olympics by the time it starts.'

He hated her for being right. Lauren was one of his favourites – he was willing to admit to it – but he didn't have any objective evidence to argue for her inclusion on the team. For now. Don had already had little discussions with her on what she needed to do and how to improve her routines, they'd already sent in a request to the FIG about her possible connected beam mount, the kind the world had never seen before, and she _was_ going to work on it. The second she was able to successfully do it at least half the time, he was going to have a word with all of the teams' co-ordinators and he was willing to bet that Regina would be the first one to petition her to be on the team. Well, sometimes you had to gamble to get what you want and Don was happy for Lauren to be his gamble.

'Now how about Payson Keeler?'

'Aren't we doing this the wrong way?' interjected Marcus. 'Instead of going through girls one by one, shouldn't we be looking at them in terms of who will be doing which apparatus, so we can choose the five best that will cover all four apparatuses?'

'He has a point,' Christine agreed.

Regina, nodding slowly, restarted the process, Don's pounding headache increasing by the second. 'Okay, let's start with vault. It's probably one of our weaker ones.'

'Jordan Randall.' Don spoke up immediately. Whether she did her specialist move or not, she was one of the best. 'Wendy Capshaw's good at it. For the lead on position, I'd probably recommend Andrea Conway. Lauren's not bad, Payson's about the same but she's stronger in the other three apparatuses. Beth Atchinson's good at it, but not as reliable as the others.'

'I'd add Kaylie Cruz to the list,' Regina added. 'So for vaults, we're thinking Andrea Conway for the lead on position, maybe Beth Atchinson or Kaylie Cruz, Jordan Randall and Wendy Capshaw.'

There was a murmur of agreements before they discussed uneven bars. Jordan Randall was again in the top four, along with Wendy Capshaw. Beth Atchinson and Andrea Conway were possibilities for the lead on position and the last spot was between Kaylie Cruz or Payson Keeler. Don couldn't fault the logic but he couldn't help thinking that Wendy could be detrimental to the team rather than a benefit.

Beam was more straightforward. Regardless of operation or not, Lauren Tanner was easily a contestant for the gold medal, and whilst training with her, Payson had come along in leaps and bounds, literally at times. Kaylie Cruz couldn't be discounted and Wendy Capshaw was great at it too. Andrea was also incredibly strong on the beam but Jordan and Beth were at similar levels, neither of them standing out. And for floor, Payson was clearly the stand-out gymnast. Regina argued for Wendy and Kaylie, who were both of a similar level. Don argued for Lauren, who could surpass both Wendy and Kaylie, especially with the changes made whilst at the OTC; Regina argued for Beth, who often rivalled Wendy's performances on floor.

After much discussion, it had been decided that Kaylie and Wendy would be the all around hopes, Jordan included for her strengths in vault and bars, Payson and Lauren included for their strengths on floor and beam.

'Except Kaylie's failed the drug test,' Don tiredly rubbed his eyes. What was the point of wishful thinking if there was no legal way that they could include Kaylie on the team? Without Kaylie, there would only be two true strengths on vault and bars and a major weakness on all around. Andrea was the best possible replacement but her strengths on floor meant that Lauren was redundant there and could they afford a gymnast who was necessary for only one apparatus? 'Jordan's in for her strengths on bars and vault, Wendy's in as all around, Andrea is probably the next best option for all around but her strengths include beam and bars, less so vault. If we keep Payson in, she would add some depth to vault and bars, floor definitely and beam. But Lauren...' He sighed, hating to say it. 'Lauren would be most useful for beam but Beth Atchinson could be used on floor, vault and bars if needed.' He hated saying it but without Kaylie, it made most sense to take Wendy, Andrea, Jordan, Payson and Beth, with Lauren as a travelling alternate.

It was at that serendipitous point that after a flurry of knocks, Lauren pre-emptively entered the room. Fidgeting a little under the agape stares of all the members in the room, she blurted out, 'Kaylie didn't do it, Wendy did.'

'What?' Regina snapped, one eyebrow nastily raised and disbelief colliding with displeasure on her face. She knew all about Lauren's little stunt and even if Marcus had forgiven her, she hadn't.

'I've got the receipts, the online ones I mean. Wendy ordered cough medicine containing pseudoephedrine,' she ended a little breathlessly, her eyes lasering at each of theirs, demanding a response.

Don was the first, grasping the receipt and scrutinising it. 'It's true. She ordered the medications,' he gazed briefly at Christine and Julia before handing the receipt over to Marcus and Regina for their inspection. 'But we don't know that she gave it to Kaylie.'

'What?' Lauren's face was aghast with a hint of betrayal flashing crossing her face. She turned beseeching eyes to Julia.

'We should check her belongings,' Julia said slowly. 'These are grounds for not just disqualification from the team but potentially criminal proceedings,' she weighed each word carefully, never losing eye contact with Lauren and the first to see the gratitude and something akin to relief wash over her face.

'I'll get onto it,' Lauren had chirpily said, turning around before she was halted.

'No, you're not to have any further involvement in this,' Don had said forcefully. 'We need someone impartial –' He frowned at her attempt to interrupt before continuing, 'And _you_ need to stay out of it to protect your own chances of making the team.'

Sulkily, she had sat down as the adults exited the room. A hurried, whispered conversation later, they had agreed. They would have to look through each and every girl's rooms and belongings, to ensure there was no further foul play. It hadn't been missed that few of the girls had bonded with Wendy and there was a chance that this was more of an attack on Wendy than defence of Kaylie, although Don personally doubted that.

Once the girls were in the room and supervised by Marcus for impartiality (Regina had insisted it shouldn't be anyone with much personal exposure to the girls and Marcus had swiftly volunteered, very conscious of the fact that none of the girls got along with Regina), the other adults had started checking through the belongings, starting with gym bags for ease. They did it as duos for added impartiality in the proceedings and it wasn't long before, starting with Wendy's bag, Don had uttered an exclamation. Having gone through the bag, Regina had had the foresight to go through her make-up too, leading to the discovery that the alleged strawberry lip balm held a white powder instead. For thoroughness, they went through the rest of the bags too, with several eyebrows raised at the number of texts Lauren's phone had received from someone entitled 'Wrestling Loser'. It was the first time Don had seen Regina's lips twitch into a smile and he wasn't sure if this was something to be in awe of or afraid of. He was leaning towards the latter.

They made their way back into the office gravely, entering it to find it a din of barbed insults and adolescent spite. Clearing his throat, Don elected to speak. 'As you may know, some banned substances were found in Kaylie's urine,' he nodded at her as she shrank back into her chair further. 'We have also found evidence that these banned substances were bought by someone else and given to Kaylie without her knowing about it,' his eyes found Wendy now, with panic and horror spreading across her face like a nasty rash, confirming the truth. 'Wendy Capshaw has accordingly been disqualified for her behaviour and we will discuss more fully with the NGO about what actions we need to take.

There was a stunned silence at his announcement and then Wendy broke into tears. 'It's _you_, it's all your fault, you fat, lazy _cripple_,' she spat at Lauren. 'Just because you can't make the team on your own talent, you have to sabotage everyone else.'

The adults awoke from their stupor but before they could say anything, Lauren had retorted, 'Actually, if _I_ were the one worried about _my_ place on the team, I'd be the one that's doing the drugging, but that was you, so I guess you were the one worried about how talentless you were and worried you'd crack under the pressure, huh?' Lauren's words were barbed but it was plain for everyone to see that underneath the make-up, she had gone pale, fists clenched tightly at her sides.

'Wendy, please leave,' Regina's icy tone held no room for argument as she escorted the weeping girl out of the room. Returning, she asked the girls to return to the waiting room as they made their final decisions.

'What a headache,' Regina sighed as she dropped in her chair.

'Told you about teamwork,' Julia muttered, scowling. 'Back to the drawing board. Kaylie for all around?'

'Maybe,' Regina said uncertainly, glancing at the two assistant coaches. 'I saw what you meant when you said she didn't have as much _drive_ or passion as the other girls. Floor and beam are definitely Payson and Lauren. Jordan would do vault and bars. If we include Andrea Conway, she's strong on beam, vault and bars. If we include Kaylie, she's strong on floor and could be counted on vault and bars; if we include Beth, she's the same, maybe a little stronger on beam, a little weaker on bars.'

'Kaylie has more international experience but,' Don paused thoughtfully. 'But if she doesn't make the team, there's a strong chance that she'll fall apart whereas if Beth's the travelling alternative, she can still be counted on.'

They announced it to a room full of ashen faces, most of the girls still horrified at what Wendy had done. 'The five team members of the USA Women's Gymnastics Team are Andrea Conway, Kaylie Cruz, Payson Keeler, Jordan Randall and Lauren Tanner. The travelling alternate is Beth Atchinson,' he smiled at hearing the little gymnast squeak. 'And the two non-travelling alternates are Colleen Evans and Kristen Henneford.'

The feeling of impending storm hadn't gone away with the decision, Don thought, as he looked at all of the girls. The most disbarring reaction was Lauren's; instead of jumping with joy – or showing any joy at all – her frown had just settled more and she had looked more like she had been given bad news than good. Payson was clearly worried about her as she shrugged off her questions and concerns and he'd made a move to talk to her but Julia was there before him.

He sighed. It felt like the climb up the mountain was just beginning. With the men in the past, the team captain would have been obvious by now and each individual would know their role, their part to play. With this team, he was already worried about two members not having their hearts, literal and metaphorical, in it, and he was more worried that choosing a team captain would unbalance the team than add some much needed security.

His eyes caught Marcus' again, seeing a reflection of his worries before the NGO official made his way to his side. 'Don't worry, Don,' there was a ghost of a smile on his face. 'Welcome to Women's Gymnastics.' Patting him briefly on the back, he added, 'There's a lot of work that needs to be done but I know you're the man for it. And we'll meet later this evening – dinner? – to discuss what we need to work on.' Their eyes flitted briefly from Kaylie Cruz, looking shell-shocked more than happy, to Lauren Tanner, who looked angry, having a hushed discussion with Julia.

'Don't suppose you know a cure for being a teenage girl do you?' Coach Don asked, only partially joking as Marcus chuckled next to him.

'Don't worry, you'll figure it out,' he turned a sly smile on him. 'Besides, you've always got your gorgeous wife for advice.'

Yeah, there was a hell of a lot of work to be done before the Olympics, and just for tonight, Coach Dondré McIntyre decided he would have a nice strong drink, maybe whiskey, before tackling each and every problem to make this team the most inspiring one USA has seen so far. He saw it in the raw material in front of his eyes – the talent these girls had, the passion and the need for perfection – it was all here, it just needed to meld together.

And that's what he was for – to make sure they melded together the way _they_ needed to.


End file.
